Listen, Slowly

“This book is at once funny, thoughtful and stunningly engaging.
I loved, loved loved it! Can't wait for my own daughter -- and every reader who is lucky enough to get their hands on it -- to step inside Mai's two, very different, worlds.”
(Jacqueline Woodson, author of the National Book
Award-winning Brown Girl Dreaming)

"These heart-stopping passages further shift Mai’s position from outsider to insider to,
finally, truly bicultural, just as “Listen, Slowly” invites readers to see Vietnam from the inside out — and back again." (New York Times)

" The sights, smells, and tastes of Vietnam’s cities and villages come alive on the page, without overwhelming a story filled with a summers-worth of touching and hilarious moments,
grand adventure, and lazy afternoons." (School Library Journal (starred review))

"As she did in her National Book Award–winning Inside Out & Back Again, Lai offers a memorable heroine and cultural journey—ones that are clever near-opposites of those in that book, as Lai trades verse for prose and an
immigrant’s story for one of a girl fully immersed in American culture. The story capably stands on its own, yet considered alongsideInside Out, it’s all the more rewarding. " (Publishers Weekly (starred review))